Just when it appeared that public interest was fading, celebrity developer Donald Trump has revived the theory that President Barack Obama was born overseas and helped expose the depth to which the notion has taken root–a New York Times poll Thursday found that a plurality of Republicans believe it.

If you haven’t been trolling the fever swamps of online conspiracy sites or opening those emails from Uncle Larry, you may well wonder: Where did this idea come from? Who started it? And is there a grain of truth there?

The answer lies in Democratic, not Republican politics, and in the bitter, exhausting spring of 2008. At the time, the Democratic presidential primary was slipping away from Hillary Clinton and some of her most passionate supporters grasped for something, anything that would deal a final reversal to Barack Obama.

So you Democrats are to blame for this? Interesting. And a lot of the early believers were….9/11 Twoofers, who were and are primarily liberals and Democrat voters.

While there is no grain of truth to either fantasy, there’s something else when it comes to Obama: A visceral reaction against him, a deep sense that the first black president, with liberal views and a Muslim name, must be–in some concrete, provable way–foreign.

Well, at least he didn’t call Birthers “raaaaacists”, which is the norm for left leaners.

Then, as Obama marched toward the presidency, a new suggestion emerged: That he was not eligible to serve.

That theory first emerged in the spring of 2008, as Clinton supporters circulated an anonymous email questioning Obama’s citizenship.

“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,” asserted one chain email that surfaced on the urban legend site Snopes.com in April 2008.

So, there it is: this whole thing was started by Hillary supporters. So, you can Blame Yourselves.

Politico goes on to provide the “debunking”, but, actually makes a mistake when discussing the Certificate Of Live Birth which was released by Team Obama, and which many proclaimed was a fake, particularly since it was released at the Daily Kos, along with the whiny “Fight The Smears” website

FactCheck.org, the non-partisan website, was allowed to examine the physical copy of the birth certificate in August 2008, and concluded it was real, that it had a raised seal, a signature and met all the State Department criteria for proof of citizenship. Combined with the state’s recognition that the record was real–and contemporary newspaper announcements of Obama’s birth, submitted by the hospitals –they concluded that he was a natural born citizen.

Actually, no. They viewed the same COLB, not the physical copy of the BC. FactCheck calls it a BC, but, it was still the same COLB.

Look, regardless, it is time to put this silliness away, folks. I’ve blogged this issue a few times, in a “just wondering” tone. Hey, if the NY Times can “just wonder” in Feb 2008 if McCain was eligible to be President because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone (shortly after Liberals floated this, and the Times did it again in July 2008), I can “just wonder” why Obama won’t release the long form. If the NY Times can “just wonder” if McCain was having a resurgence of cancer without proof, I can wonder if there is something on the BC that needs to be hid. If the Times can “just wonder” if McCain had an affair, we can “just wonder” if the long form BC has “Muslim” in the box marked religion. If the NY Times can….well, they run lots of “just wondering” stories about Republicans. It’s high time to put this conspiracy theory about Obama away (even though Liberals still whine a bit about 9/11 being an inside job and Bush stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections).

First, Obama will never release the long form. The media demanded McCain’s, but, will never demand Obama’s. He certainly knows this will make right side voters look foolish. 2nd, as I’ve said many times, there is a 99.9% chance that the only thing you might find will be some embarrassing information on it, but nothing that would disqualify him. 3rd, if Donald Trump wants to go full on crazy, let him. But, don’t follow. Because Trump is no Conservative. And there are many more issues to deal with in this country. We can’t afford to lose in 2012 and have 4 more years of this incompetent hack destroying our country. If he does win, we need to make sure we hold the House, and take control of the Senate. Let’s deal with real issues that we can do something about.

PS: Let’s not forget how so many on the left are caught up in Trig Trutherism. Apparently, it’s OK to “just wonder” if Sarah Palin is actually Trig’s mother, but not OK to “just wonder” what is on The President’s long form BC.